That time back in the 90s, when Apple had me send them porn.

Back in the 90s I had a PowerMac G4 400 MHz tower. And video streaming wasn’t a thing. We use to have to download our “adult content” from FTP sites or other services such as Hotline and watch local. (Anyone remember Hotline?)

Well, I downloaded one specific file, and I COULD NOT get QuickTime to play the file, no matter what I did. The file was encoded in a codec called Intel Indeo, and Indeo support for QuickTime back them was new. The file played just fine in Windows Media Player on my Windows PC.

So, I went to Apple’s site and use the contact form to send them an email that I am having Intel Indeo codec issues.

To my surprise, someone from Apple’s QuickTime team emailed me back about an hour later and asked me some questions. After a few email exchanges, the guy asks me to please provide the video file to them, so they can see it. And he gives me the name of an FTP server and a username and password.

Well, I have no shame, so I emailed the guy back and tell him the video is about 10 minutes long, so it’s a pretty big file (by late 90s Internet standards) and it was porn, which I am sure is against all sorts of Apple HR polices.

An hour later I get an email telling me it’s fine to upload the video, and it included a different FTP server and a different username and password.

I uploaded the file. Two weeks later I got a beta build of QuickTime to try out. It fixed the issue.

My wife and I got a good laugh out of it at the time.

**EDIT:** For those that wonder what Hotline was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC_DZIOyZSk